British Government Urges Phonics-Based Reading Strategy

Just as many American classrooms will be echoing with the sounds of
schoolchildren practicing phonics this school year, their counterparts
in England will also be more deeply entrenched in learning basic
literacy skills.

The new National Literacy Framework, lauded by officials in Britain
as "a crusade to promote reading," is one of the most extensive
interventions by that government into classroom instruction. The
program to raise flagging student achievement in England's 18,500
schools mirrors the efforts of many educators and lawmakers in this
country who have instituted programs and passed laws to ensure a
greater emphasis on phonics instruction in the early grades. ("More States Moving To Make Phonics the
Law," April 29, 1998.)

As in the United States, the level of government intervention across
the Atlantic Ocean is deemed necessary by those frustrated by low test
scores and convinced that schools need more guidance on how to teach
reading.While similar initiatives in the United States have been
primarily instituted by conservative lawmakers, England's version began
under Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party government. Its
beginnings, however, can be traced to the previous conservative
administration of Prime Minister John Major.

Complaints of Intrusion

Despite the bipartisan agreement on the plan, it has been condemned
by some as an unwelcome intrusion into the classroom.

"This is the first time ever that there has been this degree of
specification of not only content but pedagogy," said Greg Brooks, a
senior research officer for the National Foundation for Educational
Research, a nonprofit group in Berkshire, England.

"The hope is that in schools where there isn't any firm structure
for literacy, they would, if [the framework is] adopted wholeheartedly,
be able to pull themselves up by bootstraps," added Mr. Brooks, the
chairman of the European development committee of the International
Reading Association. The Newark, Del.-based reading group is a
professional association of K-12 and postsecondary educators. "The
worry which a lot of people have expressed is that ... this will
steamroller effective, but different, programs."

'The Literacy Hour'

Britain's education secretary, David Blunkett, a member of Mr.
Blair's Cabinet, has made literacy one of his top priorities. His goal
is to get 80 percent of 11-year-olds reaching the expected level of
proficiency in reading by 2002. According to the Department for
Education and Employment in London, the equivalent of the U.S.
Department of Education, only about 60 percent of 11-year-olds meet
that standard.

The cornerstone of the initiative is the "literacy hour," one hour
per day of dedicated time that includes "systematic and challenging
teaching of phonics, spelling, and vocabulary." The hour is broken into
blocks of time for shared reading and writing, phonics and spelling,
independent reading or writing, and a review period. The framework
further defines what should be taught for each academic term through
the first six levels of schooling, which begins with what Britons call
the reception year, or prekindergarten. Although not required by law,
teachers are feeling the pressure to follow the guidelines, according
to news reports there.

To help them do so, Mr. Blunkett has reduced the compulsory
curriculum in primary schools, allowing more time for reading and
mathematics instruction. He has also expanded the country's
summer-literacy schools and provided two days of professional
development to prepare teachers to implement the program.

The new strategy, which requires that students first be taught
phonics, will replace the widespread practice of teaching children to
read in the context of the story or picture clues, a method associated
with whole-language instruction.

Schools in the rest of the United Kingdom--Northern Ireland,
Scotland, and Wales--are governed by their own education ministries and
are not required to follow England's lead on such issues.

Mr. Blunkett argues that the framework uses "tried and tested
teaching methods" from the United States and Australia, as well as
Britain, according to The Times of London.

While many teachers are enthusiastic about the project, Mr. Brooks
said, the initiative has drawn criticism from many others who say the
government should not get so involved in what happens in the
classroom.

"One of the concerns I've heard is that the whole curriculum process
in the United Kingdom has had the effect of limiting the professional
judgment of individual teachers," Alan E. Farstrup, the executive
director of the International Reading Association, said. "That has
created a lot of anger and resentment among fine, professional
teachers."

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